Penn State player Kevin Blanchard of Katy on Bill O’Brien: ‘He was great’

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It’s not so much that Bill O’Brien and his ways were better at Penn State than the legendary Joe Paterno.

It was just different. But it also might have come at the perfect time.

Penn State was on the heels of a widely publicized sex-abuse scandal that ultimately cost the late Paterno his job after 45 years and two national championships.

Kevin Blanchard, an offensive lineman who starred at Katy before playing for the Nittany Lions, remembers O’Brien’s message after the first team run under it’s new head coach. The team was used to working out in small groups, but was all together this early morning.

“The first thing he said — and he said this many times during the 2012 season — was ‘What we need to win is in this room. We need you guys, we need these coaches, we need the strength staff and we need to all stick together through this,’ ” Blanchard said.

Penn State did come together under a dark cloud. O’Brien led the team to consecutive winning seasons and a 15-9 record before leaving to replace Gary Kubiak as the Texans head coach.

“He was great,” said Blanchard, a redshirt sophomore who is expected to graduate in May. “He was real devoted to the team. A lot of the stuff he did was putting the team first.”